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MBABANE - The High Court has ordered the immediate reinstatement of Constable Bongani Mfanimpela Msibi, who was placed on forced retirement.
Msibi is the police officer who was based at Ngonini OSSU, whose picture, sometime in June 2021, trended on Facebook and WhatsApp, wherein he was accused of killing civilians during the unrest in the country. The Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU) is a military wing under Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).
He approached the High Court on an urgent basis after he was called by the headhochos of the REPS to inform him that his services were being terminated on the grounds of deferred retirement.
Rejected
This was despite the executive of REPS having rejected his letter of resignation on November 1, 2021. A deferred retirement is when an individual decides to retire and claims the pension benefits later than their normal retirement age. Msibi had previously tendered his resignation as he felt he was being neglected by the organisation since after the posting of his pictures on social media and the accusations of having killed innocent civilians during the unrest, the National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police, William Tsitsibala Dlamini, allegedly did not bother to check on him if he was safe in light of the serious threats against him.
In a sudden twist of events, Msibi said he was called by the executive of REPS, who then served him with a letter informing him that he was being released from REPS on deferred retirement. The judgment by the court comes after Msibi took the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, NATCOM and the principal secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service to court, where he complained about what he termed as a forced retirement. In his judgment, Judge Cyril Maphanga interdicted the PM and the NATCOM from terminating Msibi’s services. “The applicant (Msibi) is to be reinstated to his position as police officer with immediate effect and his arrear emoluments be paid to him from the said date of retirement to date,” said the court.
Costs
The respondents were ordered to pay the applicant’s costs of the application.
In his judgment, Judge Maphanga said, it was common cause that mid-year in 2021, in the month of June, there was an onset of widespread civil unrest in the kingdom. He highlighted that the impact of this unrest was countrywide, with the state of the troubles that emerged resulting from the rioting visiting acts of arson, vandalism and looting at various commercial and private premises. The judge said this state of affairs necessitated a nation-wide deployment of security service personnel drawn from the police service, the military and Correctional Services forces.
“At the fore of these interventions were the personnel of the OSSU unit.